Survivor: Ghost Island 36×10 Review: “The Finish Line Is in Sight”

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Double eliminations don’t happen too often in a Survivor season. Normally the format sticks to an immunity challenge and a Tribal Council, with a potential for a reward challenge thrown in the beginning. The only times that double eliminations are included is the premiere episode, and the rounds when the show needs to speed up the dwindling numbers. The latter is exactly what happened during this week of Survivor: Ghost Island. We were treated to two rounds in one to quickly knock out two of the former Malolos.

This twist was a welcome surprise compared to many of the individual powers that had been floating around. By separating the ten remaining castaways into two mini tribes for one round, it forced the players to alter their strategies and put them potentially at risk. Had it been any other season than Survivor: Ghost Island, we might’ve witnessed a shocking balance of power with the mini tribes turning against their own. However, since this is the season of the Navitis sticking together, the elimination predictions were obvious to spot. There was no way that the Navitis, who had the majority in both groups, would turn against their own.

Global TV / CBS

For anyone who goes to the gym and does the pull-up, you can agree that the immunity challenge was physically enduring. Holding a stick or item at arm’s length is tough, but being forced to pull-up an object with a weight attached requires a lot of energy. If the castaway didn’t have arm strength or determination, they weren’t going to win. It wasn’t surprising to see the castaways drop pretty quickly one after the other. Chelsea is proving to be the behind-the-scenes competition beast. We’ve barely seen anything from her, but she’s racking up all these challenge wins. Based on the edit, she’s definitely not going to win, but Survivor: Ghost Island should give her more attention than the nothing she’s getting right now.

For the first group (“Purple Tribe”), the vote was set between Jenna and Donathan – there was no breaking up the Navitis in that group. What’s most surprising was Jenna’s attitude throughout the entire situation. The Navitis were considering voting her out, and even though they had lied to put her off-guard, she should’ve thought of all options for the vote. Donathan was on the fence about saving her with the hidden immunity idol; she had a chance if she kept pushing that concept to him as she was the “sure-fire” person to not have an idol. Why did she scoff at him for even thinking of saving her? She had a defeatist attitude about the whole situation and she barely campaigned to save herself.

If the original Malolos had worked together, they could’ve knocked out one of the Navitis. They had a 50/50 shot of staying and even if Donathan was successful with an idol AND had played it on Jenna, Jenna’s vote on Donathan would’ve ruined everything. Both Donathan and Jenna made a bad move.

Global TV / CBS

When it came to the second group (“Orange Tribe”), their predicament was a curious case of paranoia. Neither Laurel nor Michael had a hidden immunity idol, so one of them was guaranteed to go. However, the way the votes landed, the group created a couple of ties that were unnecessary. Laurel wasn’t going to turn against Domenick or Wendell, so her vote would’ve been Michael or Kellyn; Michael should’ve placed his vote on Kellyn for good measure instead of Wendell. Their best shot to both stay would’ve been to turn the tide against Kellyn.

Kellyn, on the other hand, wasted her extra vote power from Ghost Island. Laurel wasn’t going to be voted out at all! She let Michael’s gameplay of possibly having an idol mess with her mind and it instead ruined her game. Laurel doesn’t trust her anymore; she only voted Kellyn because Kellyn kept making the case for Laurel to get the boot. And now Domenick and Wendell are distrustful of Kellyn since she went against book to double vote Laurel. The best moves in Survivor are ones not made in paranoia and desperation – Kellyn is going to need to reassess her game moves and figure out how to repair her standing if she has any chance to win.

“The Finish Line Is in Sight” wasn’t the most eventful episode that Survivor: Ghost Island has had. The double elimination twist was supposed to cause a lot of drama and suspense for the tribes, but it only continued the downward trend of the Navitis banding together to get out the Malolos. If any of the Navitis actually want a chance to win, they’re going to need to make a big move and fast.

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Survivor: Ghost Island 36x10: "The Finish Line Is in Sight"

Justin is a fun-loving twenty-something living in downtown Toronto, Canada. He’s an avid TV buff, movie fan and gamer. In addition to writing for The Young Folks, he has contributed to Entertainment Weekly's The Community, Virgin, TV Fanatic, and his blog, City Boy Geekiness.